Singapore Airlines Airbus A380: Today it was my absolute pleasure to get up and personal with Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 here in Sydney, and that I did.
Ben Hoffman Aka The Business Travel Guru Checking out SIAs Business Seat
The day started off in Singapore Airlines Media tent to witness the giving of the proceeds of Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 charity flight eBay auction to its beneficiaries, and to take a look at mock ups of Singapore Airlines A380 cabin seats, this was followed up with guided tour of the real life Singapore Airlines Airbus A380.
Singapore AIrlines Suite Class with the Singapore Girls
Video Screen in the Singaore Airlines Suite
Business Travel Guru’s impression of the aircraft, cabin and seats
The first thing that struck me before I had even entered, then when entering was both the external and internal size of this magnificent aircraft, Singapore Airlines has pitched their A380 at the upper end of the of the market, with this extra space being achieved by reducing the total number of seats on the aircraft from Airbus’s standard configuration for 555 seats down 471 seats in Singapore Airlines A380.
Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 - dubbed The Big Fella by Sydney's Air traffic Controllers
Anyone that has flown Business Class in the upper deck of a Boeing 747, you would know the limited space in the overhead lockers, and limited height of the ceiling. For the A380 this is a non issue the upper deck has plenty of space all round, I would have been forgiven for thinking I was on the lower deck.
Singapore Airlines Suites all as I can say is WOW; these suites are as large private and exclusive.
The seat in its bed configuration is extremely comfortable at 198 cm X 69 cm (78 X 27 in rectangular), I could easily get a good night’s sleep in these. After the suite in its bed configuration the next thing that sticks out is the Video entertainment unit, the picture quality and brightness was superb, bringing the picture to life.
If you are travelling with a partner the highlight of this class would be obtaining two suites in the middle row, and converting the both suite seats into a double bed.
Before actually physically seeing the Singapore Airlines Suites the word was that they may not be as private as they are made out to be, but hey take my word for; this is the most private Upper first in the industry today, if you were/or are lucky enough to fly in Singapore Airlines Suite Class you would truly feel like being in a class of your own.
Singapore Airlines A380 Business Class
Singapore Airlines A380 Business Seat had all the amenities you could or ask or wish for, when you first see the seat it’s hard to imagine a business class seat of this size, just looks too big, and it does not look right, then again what we have been used to in Business Class has evolved with the Singapore Airlines A380 Business Class Product. As I have mentioned before this seat transforms into 193 cm (76 in) long bed which is 87 cm (34 inch) wide and a seat pitch of 1.4 m (55 inch).
The screen on the video entertainment unit is 39 cm (15.4 in) in addition seats have AC Power Supply, USB port for charging USB devices (iPod, PDA, etc), along with Video in (AUX in). Video quality (Color, brightness and sharpness) on these units was on par with the displays in the Singapore Airlines Suites (obviously apart from size).
One note if you want to make use of the built-in workstation I was told you needed to bring your own keyboard; hopefully SIA will see the wisdom of providing keyboards in the future.
Singapore Airlines A380 Economy is also a significant step forward, maybe not as large a step as what has been taken in Business Class and Singapore Airlines Suites, yet it is still a step forward.
The most important question is how is SIA’s A380 Economy class seat? I have to say it is the most comfortable economy class seat I have ever been in, this is partly due to the extra 3.8 cm (1.5 Inch) width you get compared to SIAs previous economy seat, In addition the seat cushioning and support has been improved significantly.
The Video entertainment unit in economy at 27 cm (10.6 in) is larger than the Business Class screen in Singapore Airlines other aircraft, this is quite an achievement.
Finally it’s good to know no matter which cabin or seat you are sitting in (Singapore Airlines Suite or Business or Economy) Singapore Airlines Entertainment system delivers the same 1000 on-demand entertainment options to all classes. The only difference is the size and quality of your screen along with the inclusion of noise cancelling headphones in Business and Singapore Airlines Suite classes.
It has been great to catch up with Singapore Airlines new A380 aircraft the cabin and Singapore Airlines Staff. The Airbus A380 has truly revolutionized what we come to expect from airline travel for the future.
If you would like to leave any comments below or leave a message in the Singapore Airlines Forum I would be happy to answer any questions you have about Singapore Airlines Airbus A380.